


location diaries: new york

by prettyboyrollins



Series: all the songs 'verse [5]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:13:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26086270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettyboyrollins/pseuds/prettyboyrollins
Summary: Two weeks filming in an old castle on an island in New York. Ryan was sure it would go fine.
Relationships: Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej
Series: all the songs 'verse [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1569382
Comments: 4
Kudos: 53





	location diaries: new york

**Author's Note:**

> [zoey 101 voice] are you ready
> 
> i'm back! this was supposed to be a tiny little vignette to flesh out the atsis verse further (which, spoilers ahoy if you haven't read that, i suggest you do), but i ended up rereading parts to make sure i was being consistent, and then this spiraled out of control. there's another fic like this coming at some point! i've started writing it, and it'll be a location diary detailing some events that got an offhand mention in atsis.
> 
> much love to [yesi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveontherocks/pseuds/loveontherocks) for the beta, and for the encouragement with writing something out of my wheelhouse.

Working on a movie as assistant director was a huge step up for Ryan. Sure, it was some weird independent period film that he wasn’t  _ crazy _ passionate about, but it was a big difference from being some disposable camera guy that the director saw as beneath them.

They were filming at a castle on an island in New York - someplace isolated and empty and eerily beautiful. It worked well for what they needed and kept the budget low, and it was kind of a marvel to wander around before filming started for the day. Ryan couldn’t help himself; he texted Shane a few pictures of rooms they weren’t using for filming, along with a simple “wish you were here to tell me all the historical inaccuracies with this.” 

The first few days of filming went by in a blur; there were so few issues Ryan almost didn’t want to talk about it with the crew for fear of cursing them somehow. “It’s going almost too good,” he said to Matt, one of the audio engineers and his temporary roommate for the two week job. “I feel like it’s going too well, y’know? I’m waiting.”

“Dude, for what?”

“I don’t know, but  _ something.” _

The next day, they’d moved into an upstairs room to film a scene in what had intended to be a sitting room - the man who built the place, apparently, had died the night he moved in from a heart attack.

The director had thrown that fact out like it was something interesting and cool and fun. Ryan would disagree, but he didn’t admit that out loud.  _ And plus, people die in lots of places. It doesn't mean they’re all haunted.  _

The fact that Shane’s voice was in his head, teasing him in an effort to calm him down, made him smile. 

**_update: the dude who built this place died the night he moved in. that sucks._ **

_ I know what you’re thinking. _

_ It’s not haunted. _

_ Relax. _

**_i wasn’t thinking that!_ **

_ I know you, Ryan. You were. _

_ Have fun. Love you. _

**_you’re the WORST shane madej_ **

“Okay, cool!” the director called, pulling his attention away from his horrible boyfriend; Ryan tucked his phone in his back pocket and looked over at her. “Places, let’s do this while we have the light!”

The crew he was working with here was less tight-knit than the one he’d had in Chicago, and as they moved through scenes and altered blocking and fixed the way lines were delivered, he found himself almost distracted by how deeply he missed them. There was something so good about the easy camaraderie that had formed between them all as they dealt with a shitty job and a shitty director and something that felt almost like a curse on set. 

“I think it all sucked so much ‘cause we were getting each other out of the deal,” Jen had mused when she visited Ryan and Shane last summer. “All that shittiness had to balance out somehow, right? And you got your  _ boy _ and me out of it. Balance.”

He didn’t mind the easy job, and he didn’t mind the people, but that summer in Chicago - even with all its flaws - had been the best summer job of his life. Nothing would ever beat it.

The nostalgia stuck with him even after they left set - he and Matt had found a local pizza place to get dinner, and he’d brought up some of the better stories from back then to trade for Matt’s most ridiculous film school screwups. 

“Trying to tell my professor that my dog  _ literally ate _ my SD card was so embarrassing, dude.” Matt pushed his hair back, but it just flopped right back into his face as he took a bite and covered his mouth. “I had to bring in the chewed up SD card that Wednesday to prove it and she still made me do reshoots. I almost cried, man, it was bad.”

_ “Fuck, _ how long did those reshoots  _ take?” _

“I didn’t sleep for 48 hours straight. I was made of Red Bull and regret.”

They were leaving the pizza place when Ryan’s phone rang; Matt looked over at him and saw the faint smile that appeared as he checked his caller ID. “I’ll see you at the hotel, man,” he said with a little wave, and as soon as he was half a block away, Ryan answered.

“Hey, Shane.” He hated how he sounded - it was less of a greeting and more of a sigh, and he could practically feel Shane’s teasing smile from two thousand miles away.

“Hey, Ry. How was work?”

“Completely uneventful. I have no interesting stories to tell you.” Ryan shoved his free hand in his pocket and started walking slowly in the same direction Matt had gone, scuffing his feet along the sidewalk. “How’s your day been?”

“It’s been good so far.” Shane paused, and in the background Ryan could hear a slowed-down version of the melody that opened Make You Mine. “We’re gonna start recording in a few. That’s why I called, figured this was our little bit of overlapping free time today.”

Ryan’s chest ached a bit; long distance wasn’t something new by any means, but they’d gotten used to seeing each other all the time since Shane had moved in. The Skeptics had only played shows within driving distance of Los Angeles so far, so even when he was gone when Ryan went to sleep, he was usually there when he woke up. 

“You nailed it, man. I’m about to head back to the hotel and work on some stuff for Keith before bed.”

Shane hummed. Zack’s voice filtered through the phone, a little strained as he tried to hit a note - Ryan remembered Shane saying that one of Zack’s songs was going to be on this EP. He was originally planning on being in the studio with him tonight, just to get a peek behind the scenes; this job was too important to not take, though. “Speaking of working on stuff for Keith.” It was almost shocking how quickly Shane’s tone shifted completely - he sounded a lot more energetic now, and Ryan’s brow furrowed as he waited for an explanation. “I talked with the label today, actually. They’re willing to hire you guys again to make a little behind the scenes in the studio thing for our album next year. Y’know, if you’re willing to work with us again after seeing how obnoxious we were for that music video.”

“I dunno. You were all kind of a pain in the ass, so I feel like my directorial skills went unappreciated.” He hoped his smile was as audible as it felt; Shane’s laugh confirmed it, and warmth flooded his chest like it always did around him.

“You love us,” Shane said with a scoff.

“I do.”

That hung in the silence between them for a few moments as Ryan stopped next to the door to his hotel. He leaned against the bricks there and just listened, letting the mess of noise from the band wash over him before he spoke again. “I’m gonna head inside and get to work. Miss you.”

“Love you, Ry.”

“Love you too. I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, absolutely. Goodnight.”

***

It was the last full day of filming, and so far, there’d been no incidents or bad luck on set; Ryan knocked on wood the moment he thought that, just to be safe. He wanted to believe that this job was just going to go smoothly, with no surprises and no problems, so badly it was visible in his posture - Matt had been teasing him for how tense he was every time they got to set.

“It’s not like the ceiling’s gonna collapse or something. Relax, Ryan!”

Most of the day  _ did _ pass without a single problem - Ryan ate a sandwich provided by catering in the room they’d be filming in next, going over notes for blocking that he and the director had collaborated on. He focused on the suggestions, trying to visualize them in the space in front of him.

Someone touched his shoulder, and he jumped.

Internally, he prepared for endless teasing - Shane and Jen  _ still _ liked to startle him just for the reaction, and now this person (Matt, most likely) was gonna end up in that club, too. He turned to look at who it was, and instead saw nothing but the empty doorway that led to the hall.

_ What the fuck. _

“Hello?”

His voice echoed; he could hear the distant chatter from where catering was set up downstairs, but there were no footsteps. There was no one upstairs, by the sounds of it.

Ryan could feel his heart racing already; there was no rational Shane in his mind to tell him to pull it together this time. He stood up carefully and quietly, leaving his script on his chair as he wandered out into the hallway, sandwich in hand.

The hallways were a little dimmer - the natural light from all the windows couldn’t make it quite so far in, and it made everything feel just a little less friendly. Instead of looking into the room next to the sitting room - a guest bedroom, if he remembered right from the initial location walkthrough - he simply stood next to the door and listened closely.

Silence.

That didn’t calm him down at all. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and his grip tightened a little on his sandwich as he took a few deep breaths. Once he felt a little more steady on his feet, he turned to look in the room.

There was nothing, and the sunlight reflecting off the water sparkled on the ceiling. It was almost peaceful.

_ Okay. One down, two more to go. _

He moved back towards the other side of the hall, glancing quickly into the bathroom; it was dark in there, but when he turned on his phone’s flashlight he was able to confirm it was empty beyond the tub and toilet and sink. That left the master bedroom, where William Wyckoff died in his sleep in the 1890s.

He didn’t want to go in. He didn’t. He’d been avoiding the doorway since he’d heard the story; the room itself wasn’t anything scary, sure, but just knowing what he knew now gave it a strangely oppressive aura he could feel like a tangible thing. 

Thank god they weren’t doing any night shoots here.

He kept his phone in his sandwich-free hand (and he was starting to regret not finishing it before looking around, because he felt like a fool) as he listened again. When there was no noise or sounds of life, he took a step over the threshold and looked around.

Once again, he was met with nothing out of the ordinary. There was the sparse furniture that had been placed there just for filming, the big picture windows overlooking the water, and the old fireplace that was crumbling in the corner. 

The weight of the air in the room didn’t lessen, but Ryan did feel like he could breathe a little easier. Maybe it was a trick of his mind.

_ Fuck, Shane’s rubbing off on me. _

He rolled his eyes, but as he did, something above him caught his attention. He looked up fully and saw HELP ME written in red on the ceiling.

All he wanted to do was run, but he felt frozen in place.

He couldn’t remember if that had been there on their first walkthrough. Had it been? They had no reasons to look up at the ceilings because they wouldn’t be in the shot - because the ceilings were  _ high _ . There wasn’t a good way to get up there - the odds of it being left by the crew were impossible then. Right? That had to be new. Or old.  _ Fuck. _

The voices from downstairs started getting louder; lunch had probably ended. He should get back to his chair and finish his sandwich instead of standing in the bedroom trembling. Ryan took another deep breath and went to turn around slowly, as if he was trying not to startle a bear.

The air went cold. A hand brushed against his back.

Ryan whimpered.

***

Sleep didn’t come that night. Ryan’s mind was stuck on that feeling in that room, the way that something had touched him - something that hadn’t been visible, something that  _ had _ to be a ghost. He’d been standing in the room where Wyckoff had died, after all. 

Even though he was tucked in bed and Matt was snoring in the bed across the room, he could still feel it, that brush of solid cold across the center of his back in an otherwise warm room. He shivered and turned over, grabbing his headphones from the nightstand and plugging them into his phone.

Shane answered on the fourth ring, and even just hearing the background noise of wherever Shane was - someplace filled with chatter and yelling - grounded Ryan a little bit. “Hey, Ry, are you okay?” he asked, concern dripping from every word. Brent said something Ryan couldn’t quite make out in the background, but Shane didn’t respond. “It’s like, two in the morning there, right? What’s wrong?”

“It’s gonna sound stupid,” Ryan admitted, voice low so he wouldn’t wake Matt up. “I can’t sleep. That’s all. Figured I’d call you - I hear the guys. Are you busy?”

“That’s not stupid, first of all.” Ryan could practically  _ hear _ the look on Shane’s face, that slightly annoyed expression he put on whenever Ryan brought up ghosts or his weird movie opinions. “Second of all, I’m just grabbing some In-N-Out with the band. We’re gonna stay late tonight, try and get a couple more takes in before we head home.”

“Hi Ryan!”

“TJ says hi, by the way.”

Laughing a little, Ryan rolled onto his side, curling up a little bit as the horrible, lingering feeling from earlier started to ebb away. “Hi TJ.”

“He says hi.”

The silence that settled between them was nice - they weren’t the type that had to talk all the time to feel comfortable, and just knowing Shane was there was enough to keep that feeling from earlier at bay. “I guess I just wanted to hear your voice or something. It’s been a long day. Long couple  _ weeks. _ I think I’m ready to be done with being away for a little while.”

“You won’t hear me complaining,” Shane said, voice soft and warm in the way he kept special for Ryan. “Obi, on the other hand, might have something to say. He’s gotten used to sleeping on your side of the bed.”

“Tell the little man I’ll be home soon and I expect my spot back.” 

“Will do.” Shane sighed and Ryan heard fabric brush against his phone. He closed his eyes, trying to picture how Shane would look right now - it was an attempt to focus on something  _ so much _ that the memories from earlier had no space to seep in. “I have your flight information on the fridge  _ and _ in my phone. I’ll be there to pick you up tomorrow night, okay?”

Ryan’s brow furrowed. “Aren’t you going to be in the studio? My flight doesn’t land until, like, eight.”

“They can do tracking on Zack and Brent’s stuff. I don’t have to be there for that. I trust Maya and TJ. I’m picking you up, Ryan.” His tone was firm; even if Ryan had had the energy, he wouldn’t have argued it. “I’ll see you tomorrow night. Get some sleep, okay?”

“Okay. Love you.”

“I love you too.”

The words wrapped around him like Shane’s arms would have, and his mind went soft and warm enough for him to finally find sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> please let me know if i managed to get the spooky vibe right. i'm a soft bitch and romance is my thing, not anything vaguely horror-adjacent. the location ryan was filming in _does_ actually exist (wyckoff castle) and is believed to be haunted - the graffiti is also apparently real, but i can't find any pictures.
> 
> if you wanna come chat, i've got a brand new [writing twitter](https://twitter.com/latinnameluna) you can follow (i mostly just spit ideas out there and talk abt the process) and as always, i'm on [tumblr](https://mediumboybergara.tumblr.com/) too!
> 
> xoxo - luna


End file.
